PARTICIPATION
OF THE PRIVATE SECTOR IN THE STANDING COMMITTEES OF THE PARLIAMENT

The process of globalization is picking
up and Pakistan being a signatory to the WTO agreement should well equip to
compete in the Global Village

By AMANULLAH
BASHAR
Apr 03 - 09, 2006

Chairman Senate, Mohammedmian Soomro
has supported the suggestion of the industrialists that business representatives
should participate in meetings of various standing committees of the parliament,
as these committees are directly or indirectly influence the trade and
investment of the country.

The manufacturing and services sectors
required more attention, however the government was doing its best. It is now up
to the private sector to exploit the huge potential available within the
country. The Senate Chairman urged the private sector to manufacture especially
heavy equipment and agriculture machinery to meet local demand along with
exports to developing countries.

The process of globalization is picking
up and Pakistan being a signatory to the WTO agreement should well equip to
compete in the Global Village. The industrial community of Pakistan is an
enlightened group, and it should be more optimistic and aggressive about
competing in the New World market. It is true that there are roadblocks; it is
true that there is red tape, and it is true that government policies take time
in maturing. However, this should not deter the industrialists and they should
be ready to face all eventualities. He said, "I am sanguine the Pakistani
industrialists will face all internal and external obstacles and move ahead to
secure their niche in the global market", Soomro observed.

The Senate Chairman was addressing the
members of SITE Association of Industry underlined the need for enhanced and
continuous interaction between the government and the business community as this
would help in making the government's policies more practical and targeted. He
assured the SAI members that their suggestions would get due weight in policy
and decision making by the government.

Sympathizing with the industrialists
Chairman Senate, said that he knew that they had many bottlenecks to face, many
obstacles in their way, and many difficulties to overcome and despite all these,
they are going ahead and this is the message that Quaid-e-Azam gave for all of
us. He said, "I salute the industrialists and businessmen who made the
impossible possible. You have enabled the government to meet revenue targets, to
exceed the export targets, and to improve the GDP. It is you industrialists who
are the engine of growth that would lead us to economic prosperity".

Senate Chairman said much is to be done
to improve infrastructure and reduce the cost of doing business in the country
supplemented by more social reforms. Investors are very sensitive about size of
market, infrastructure standard, security situation, reserves and access to
justice. The government was seriously looking at all these sectors for maximum
economic activity in the country.

Chairman of SITE Association, Ameen
Bandukda said in his presentation that the world is now moving very fast and the
last twenty years have witnessed more technological advancement than seen in
2000 years prior to that. He said that the info tech revolution has started and
this is going to be the age of microprocessors, biotechnology, sophisticated
communication, robotics etc. If Pakistan does not at least triple the
expenditure outlay on Education, Human Skills development and Health, we will be
left very far behind in the comity of nations. Bandukda said that it was a sad
state of affairs that in the last Fiscal Budget of Rs. 1100 billion only Rs. 16
billion was spent on Education and Rs. 4 billion on Health services. This, he
said was a joke and will not help in changing the destiny of our Country. A
minimum of Rs. 75 billion should be allocated in the next budget to Education,
Health and Judiciary, if we are to change our league to the next level or else
we shall remain a third world countries all our lives.

He agreed that all focus should be on
promotion of quality Education and Skill Development, which is the pre-requisite
to social and economic empowerment of the nation. Private sector should also
contribute more towards social sector. He said that more serious efforts on the
part of public as well as private sector are needed to successfully face the
open global competition under WTO.

Senate Chairman said that early
development of alternative resources for generating energy and construction of
water reservoirs has become more important in the wake of depleting gas
reserves. Discussing about future of industries in the light of fast depleting
Pakistan's gas reserves and non-finalization of Iran gas pipeline project, he
dispelled the impressing that the gas pipeline project had been abandoned and
said that negotiations on gas pipeline issue with Iran were in progress.

The government has visualized the
situation and was making efforts for early construction of water reservoirs and
efforts were underway to discover more gas and develop alternative energy
resources. He said that the people have the right to express their concern over
water reservoirs but it did not mean that Pakistan should not have water
reservoirs.

The Senate Chairman remarked that
tax-GDP ratio in Pakistan is the lowest, and added that the business community
should persuade non-taxpayers to start paying taxes so that tax base be
increased. This would also help them to get relief of high tariffs. He agreed
with SITE Association that wherever income is generated, it should be taxed.
There should be a level playing field and the tax system should be equitable and
socially just.

He expressed hope that Pakistan would
surpass the exports target of 18 billion dollars this year. He assured the
business community that their budget proposals would be looked into and,
wherever possible, accommodated.

He emphasized the need of mechanizing
agriculture sector and developing agriculture machinery locally. He said that
the most important challenge before Pakistan was the competitiveness of its
products in international market. He said that the business community should
send their suggestions to improve the policies and make Pakistan's products
competitive. He also advised the business community to invest in construction
sector to meet the housing shortage that comes to around 6 million housing units
in the country.

For the quality of life of our
citizens, - lower inflation, good education, affordable housing, affordable and
or free health facilities, cheap and expeditious justice and providing better
infrastructure facilities to industries and the agricultural sector are
essentially required.

Ameen Bandukda in his address observed
that after a long time our economy has had a good fiscal year 2004-2005. The GDP
grew by 8.4%, which is remarkable, and in consonance with the emerging economies
in our neighborhood, but side-by-side expressed his dissatisfaction that this
momentum does not seem to continue as growth estimates have been revised
downwards to 6%. Emerging economies in our region like China and India had
sustained growth of above 8% over many years and only then they have been
considered to be on strong foundations and added "We have one good year and
complacency set in. Nothing is done to sustain this high growth over periods of
long years".